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Monday, March 16, 2015

The Great American Desert - Move Along Folks...

by Pam Hillman

I’ve always found it interesting that so many of the early
pioneers completely passed up The Great Plains in favor of California and
Oregon. From my modern day viewpoint, I just never could understand why.

But Eureka, I have found the answer!

I discovered that the early expeditions of Lewis and Clark, Zebulon
Pike, and Stephen Long followed the rivers—the Missouri, the Arkansas, the
Platte, and the Canadian—mapping out trails across the plains to Oregon,
California, and Santa Fe, areas that had been settled by seagoing vessels.
However, on their track westward, these explorers documented the vegetation,
animal life, and information about the Indians living in the American
heartland.

The Great Plains includes parts of Colorado, Kansas,
Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wyoming,
and Texas, as well as parts of Canada. For the sake of today’s post, the bulk
of the pioneers travelled the Oregon Trail, so might have passed through what
we know as Nebraska, possibly Kansas, SE Colorado, Wyoming. Those areas are
desirable places to live now, so what kept the pioneers from settling on the plains
from the very beginning? Why the mad rush to Oregon or California while
bypassing the plains?

Because they didn’t think of the area as The Plains. They’d been conditioned to
view the area as (cue the ominous music) THE
GREAT AMERICAN DESERT!!!

In his expedition of 1819-1820, Major Stephen H. Long
prepared a map where he broadly designated The Great Plains as the Great American Desert, and that’s where
the problem started—well, maybe not literally
with Major Long, but the moniker stuck. And from that point forward, numerous
maps drawn up between the 1820-1850s describe the area as a desert and
completely uninhabitable.

Colonel Richard Irving Dodge says in his book, The Hunting Grounds of the Great West,
“When I was a schoolboy my map of the United States showed between the Missouri
River and the Rocky Mountains a long and broad white blotch, upon with was
printed in small capitals “THE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT – UNEXPLORED.”

Zebulon Pike went so far as to say, “These vast plains of
the western hemisphere may become in time as celebrated as the sandy deserts of
Africa.”

Greeley stated that timber could not be grown because (he
believed) the wind blew so hard. He also felt the “desert” was steadily
enlarging its borders.

Is it any wonder the American public saw the plains as a
vast, dry, horrible, terrible no good place to put down roots and invest their
futures?

From one map to another and over a
period of 30 to 40 years, the seeds were firmly planted in people’s minds that
the area was a vast wasteland, and not good for much other than a road to the
fertile lands of Oregon or California. It would take years to erase that image.
In the early years, pioneers marched westward nearly 2000 miles with blinders
on, ignoring the beauty, the rich black dirt, and the opportunity to homestead
the very land they trampled in their haste to get to the “promised land” on the
distant shore.

Again, from our enlightened state in 2015, it’s hard for us
to imagine why they’d do this, but keep in mind that these travellers had their
sights on the well watered, wooded, rolling hills that were similar in terrain
and natural resources to the land they were familiar with back East. I suppose
if you think about it, it makes sense.

The very fact that the pioneers were wary of The Plains is
the reason the Oregon Trail even exists. If the region had been heavily
forested and crisscrossed with streams and rivers and populated with all manner
of animals and vegetation ripe for the picking, the pioneers would have slowly continued
their migration westward instead of making the huge jump over The Plains from
the East to the West.

As more pioneers spilled westward, more of them realized the
vast opportunities they were leaving untouched. In the 1850s, a concentrated
effort was made by the US government and enlightened visionaries to turn the
image of the Great American Desert around, and The Great Plains and The
Homestead Acts was born. Settlers poured into the region and a whole new era
began.

Just think what would have happened if Major Long had wrote
on his map THE GREAT AMERICAN PLAINS.

Pam Hillman was born and raised on a dairy farm in
Mississippi and spent her teenage years perched on the seat of a tractor raking
hay. In those days, her daddy couldn’t afford two cab tractors with air
conditioning and a radio, so Pam drove the Allis Chalmers 110. Even when her
daddy asked her if she wanted to bale hay, she told him she didn’t mind raking.
Raking hay doesn’t take much thought so Pam spent her time working on her tan
and making up stories in her head. www.pamhillman.com

I wonder what part of the Great Plains the mappers traveled through that made them call it a desert. And where were they when they decided trees couldn't grow there. I've traveled quite a bit of the Great Plains from Texas to North Dakota, and the only place I can think of might be the Badlands of South Dakota.

I know. Isn't it weird? But again, maybe we look at it from today's perspective. Carla Olson Gade's story Proving Up in The Homestead Brides Collection focuses on The Timber Acts which required the homesteaders to plant trees. So, things are certainly different now.

Maybe they thought trees "couldn't" grow there because they didn't. I live in Lancaster County, NE, and when the county was first surveyed in the 1860s, the surveyor noted less than 6 trees in the entire northern half of the entire county. I think it was only 3 trees ... but it's been a long time since I read the reference, so I'm not quoting an exact number. Still, that would seem very much like desert to people from the East. Looking at early photographs of the capitol city here in Nebraska, it's hard to imagine it's the same place. NO trees, when today there is a canopy of green.

Wow, 3 trees in an entire county. I can't imagine. Also, as we think about the mass exodus across the plains westward from the late 1840s up to that time, since trees were a commodity, the bulk of what was there (and from all accounts, there wasn't much) was cut for firewood, and repairs, and to build forts and such. So, maybe it was worse in 1860 than it was in the 20s and 30s!

Also, looking at Carla's story again (handy-dandy reference! :), Proving Up is set in 1885 in Nebraska, and the introduction says that the Timber Culture Act was (sic: passed into law) March 3, 1873 as "An Act to encourage the Growth of Timber on the Western Prairie."

Thank goodness for far-sighted visionaries who'd figured out that trees could grow there!

What an interesting post, Pam. I didn't know the Great Plains had first been known as the Great Desert. That misnomer certainly had marked effects, sending people traipsing across the country to the Golden State. As a native Californian I know what a wonderful place this is, but I wondered what had kept so many from settling the vast area between the Mississippi and the Far West for so long. Thanks to you, I have my answer.

Keli, I was the same way. I've always loved reading stories about the Oregon Trail, and I'd read about the grass being as far as the eye could see. I've been part of the cattle industry my entire life, and I thought...wow, they're passing up all that grass???

Granted, when all those thousands of people went through during the 10?, 15? years of traveling those trails, much of that grass (and the few trees) was decimated, so later travelers would have definitely found little to entice them to stay.

You know, as I think on this more, I've come to another conclusion. Think about the families who did decide to settle the Great Plains and got caught in the flood of people heading THROUGH their land. There was no stopping them, so anything they planted would be trampled or eaten by the hordes of people and animals passing through. Until the mass exodus to Oregon and California died down a bit, I suspect there wasn't much anyone could do other than join 'em and go on, or go back.

Such a fun read! Parts of CA sure are desert so must have headed for the Northern Coast. I always had the Oregon Trail on our bucket list, but haven't made it there yet. The 3 books look great! and I would love to read them all! sm CA wileygreen1(at)yahoo(dot)com

Sharon, we travelled through the area several years ago, but I didn't get to stay nearly as long as I would have liked. I had 2 teenage boys and a "interstate" minded cowboy driving. I got out voted! lol

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